The present disclosure provides devices, systems, and methods to utilize relative timing offset information reported by one or more mobile devices. When coupled with AGPS information reported by one or more mobile devices, the offset information is be used to calibrate calculations and subsequently to locate all 3G mobiles with GPS-like accuracy, whether or not a GPS receiver is available on said mobile device being located. A determination of a propagation delay between one or more cell sites and a mobile device is reported to a network and used to calibrate unknown information such as a timing offset, to improve the accuracy of a detected location. The relative timing offset can be applied to determine a location for all other mobile devices within the area served by the known base station. The present disclosure utilizes this method in conjunction with information crowd-sourced from a plurality of mobile devices.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a system comprising a processor, computed timing difference information for a base station device pair, comprising a first and second base station device associated with a network, and a first mobile device on a network, the computed timing difference information based on a propagation delay determined from global positioning system information for the first mobile device and known locations of base station devices comprising the base station device pair; determining, by the system, timing offset information for the base station device pair relative to the first mobile device based on a difference between first measured timing difference information and the computed timing difference information; receiving, by the system, second measured timing difference information for the base station device pair from a second mobile device on a network; and determining, by the system, a location of the second mobile device based in part on the timing offset information for the base station device pair and the second measured timing difference information.
2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising instructing, by the system, the first mobile device to transmit the first computed timing difference information.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the base station device pair operates on a network that serves the first and second mobile devices.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the base station device pair operates on a network that does not serve the first mobile device.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing, by the system, the first computed timing difference information on a data store.
6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising storing, by the system, the timing offset information on a data store.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising employing, by the system, Newton-Raphson processing to determine a least mean squared error estimate for a geographical locations of the first and second base station device of the base station device pair.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving, by the system, a plurality of timing difference information, comprising the first computed timing difference information and the second measured timing difference information, for a plurality of mobile devices.
9. A system comprising: a memory to store instructions; and a processor, coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the instructions to perform operations, comprising: receiving global positioning system information for a first mobile device; receiving first measured timing difference information associated with a measured propagation delay of a signal between a base station device pair, comprising a first and second base station device associated with a network, and the first mobile device; determining timing offset information for the base station device pair based on the first measured timing difference information, the global positioning system information for the first mobile device, and defined locations of the base stations comprising the base station device pair; receiving second measured timing difference information associated with another measured propagation delay of another signal between the base station device pair and a second mobile device; and determining a location for the second mobile device based in part on the timing offset information for the base station device pair and the second measured timing difference information.
10. The system of claim 9 , further comprising receiving another timing offset information from a data store that comprises a plurality of defined locations for a plurality of base station device pairs comprising the base station device pair.
11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the receiving the first measured timing difference information is in response to instructing the first mobile device to transmit the first measured timing difference information.
12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the base station device pair operates on a different network than a network serving the first mobile device.
13. The system of claim 9 , further comprising storing the first measured timing difference information on a data store.
14. The system of claim 9 , further comprising storing the timing offset information on a data store.
15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the base station device pair comprises a nodeB device.
16. A mobile device, comprising: a memory to store instructions; and a processor, coupled to the memory, that facilitates execution of the instructions to perform operations comprising: receiving first measured timing difference information between a base station device pair, comprising a first and second base station device associated with a network, and another mobile device, the first timing difference information comprising a measured propagation delay for a signal transmitted between the other mobile device and the base station devices comprising the base station device pair; receiving base station device pair location information for known locations of the base station devices comprising the base station device pair; receiving location information for the other mobile device determined from global positioning system information for the other mobile device; determining predicted timing difference information between the base station device pair and the other mobile device based on the base station device pair location information and the location information for the other mobile device; determining timing offset information of the base station device pair based on the first measured timing difference information and the predicted timing difference information; and determining a location for the mobile device based on the timing offset information and second measured timing difference information measured between the mobile device and the base station device pair.
17. The mobile device of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise storing a plurality of timing offset information for a plurality of base station device pairs to facilitate determining the location of the mobile device.
18. The mobile device of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise displaying the location of the mobile device.
19. The mobile device of claim 16 , wherein the operations further comprise storing a plurality of timing difference information between a plurality of base station device pairs and other mobile devices.
20. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise receiving other timing offset information for another base station device pair to facilitate the determining the location of the mobile device.
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
August 27, 2010
May 21, 2013
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